This invention is related to a manufacturing process of covering foils for the windows of packing boxes and to the windows obtained in this way as well as to the boxes provided with such boxes.
In the state of the art, several types of display and packing boxes are known, they are provided with windows closed by transparent foils. Such boxes permit an effective display of their contents.
More particularly, the applicant has filed an application for a French patent, registered under No 80 26 305, regarding a display box having an opening over one edge at least, said opening being closed by a rigid and transparent plastic material foil. The window of transparent plastic material has cut-ups at the ends of the grooves associated to the edges of the box, so that the foil edges do not cooperate with the folding flanges of the box cardboard blank.
Besides, the applicant has filed an additional application under No 81 13 025 regarding a manufacturing process of boxes of this type, comprising the cutting of a blank that forms the box complete with an opening, the positioning of a transparent plastic material foil over the opening, said foil being larger than said opening, and the grooving of the foil in order to form the beginning of folds.
The boxes made in this way feature a greater rigidity than the boxes of prior art and having a flexible plastic material foil covering the window.
More particularly, they are remarkable in that there is no flange building itself, no rent beginning at the connections between the foil and the cardboard blank on the edge, owing to the provision of slots extending beyond the border of the window.
The presence of the slot goes against current prejudices of the manufacturers of display packing boxes, yet the slots are fairly unnoticeable so that a casual observer does not notice them.
Moreover, by reason of electrostatic charges, no dust can enter the boxes through the slots.
However, in the case of packings for food products, and, more generally, when a contact of the contents with ambient air is not desired, said slots may be undesirable.
Despite the considerable success met by the packing boxes of the applicant, it has not been possible until now to retain the advantage given by the slots, viz the absence of tear of the covering foil and of the cardboard blank, and at the same time, to provide an adequate sealing of the packing box.
This invention provides a solution to the problem by proposing a manufacturing process of a covering foil for a packing box window having both the advantageous features given by the slots and a relative sealing of the box.
This invention refers more particularly to a manufacturing process of covering foils for packing box windows extending on at least one edge of said box that comprises the steps of cutting out slots in a film of clear rigid plastic material, of gluing a film of clear flexible plastic material having no slots onto the above prepared film, of cutting covering foils from the composite material obtained, with grooving of the folding lines at the same step.
Through this process it is possible to manufacture at the same time, a great number of covering foils by means of automatic machines, and the resulting covering foils can subsequently placed on the cardboard blank by the conventional technique.
According to a preferred embodiment, the film of rigid plastic material and the film of flexible plastic material are joined by means of an adhesive having no adherence properties in normal storage and service conditions of the packings.
This prevents the adhesive film left exposed by the rigid plastic material film in the slot regions to attract and trap solid particles such as dust.
The adhesives giving satisfactory results are, for example, the so-called "hot melt" glues whose tack or adhesion properties are zero or very low when cold and that are utilized and applied at temperatures much higher than ambient temperatures.
Also, the desired result can be achieved with glues that are activated by conditions not normally present: ultraviolet radiations, chemical agents, high frequency.
According to a preferred form of embodiment, the union of both rigid and flexible plastic material films is obtained by the application of a layer of adhesive on the flexible film and the resulting composite assembly is rolled by two press-cylinders that exert pressure on either side of said assembly.
Experience has taught that the best bonding between the film is achieved when the adhesive layer is applied on the flexible film. The flexible film has better capabilities to assume the shape of the possible variations in thickness of the rigid thicker film.
More particularly, this permits to prevent any refraction phenomena that occur in case of variations, however small, in the interface between both films.
This invention also relates to a covering foil for packing boxes having a window extending over at least one edge comprising a first a first transparent rigid sheet having pre-grooved grooves with at their ends slots extending beyond the line that is respective to the window edges, and a second substantially similar transparent flexible sheet having no slots, both transparent sheets being glued against each other.
A covering foil of this kind permits to obtain a foldable display packing that eliminates the risk of tearing at the connection between the clear foil and the cardboard blank while being tight enough to prevent the introduction into the box of microscopic dust particles or of fluids.
Moreover, with such covering foils, it is possible to make covering foils for foldable display packings that meet the requirements of all standards, and more particularly, food standards, by covering the rigid plastic material sheet, the quality of which is unimportant and for which the selection criteria basically are rigidity and low cost, with a flexible plastic material sheet the contact of which with the box contents is not prohibited by ruling standards.
For instance, a low-priced but prohibited by food standards vinyl polychorlide sheet can be covered by a flexible sheet of vinyldilene polychloride.
This invention is also related to a foldable display box comprising a cardboard blank having a window over at least one edge covered by a transparent window provided with pregrooved fold lines in alignment with the edges of the cardboard blank and having at the ends of said pre-grooved fold lines slots that extend at least up to the window edges, the rigid material sheet being covered by a flexible transparent plastic material sheet of substantially identical dimensions and having no slots .